All the next day the wind was in our favor, and we arrived at Palermo an hour before sunset. We had scarcely run into harbor when a small party of officers and gendarmes, heavily laden with pistols and carbines, came on board and showed a document authorizing them to search the brig for Carmelo Neri. I was somewhat anxious for the safety of my good friend the captain--but he was in nowise dismayed; he smiled and welcomed the armed emissaries of the government as though they were his dearest friends.
"To give you my opinion frankly," he said to them, as he opened a flask of line Chianti for their behoof, "I believe the villain Carmelo is somewhere about Gaeta. I would not tell you a lie--why should I? Is there not a reward offered, and am not I poor? Look you, I would do my best to assist you!"
One of the men looked at him dubiously.
"We received information," he said, in precise, business-like tones, "that Neri escaped from Gaeta two months since, and was aided and abetted in his escape by one Andrea Luziani, owner of the coasting brig 'Laura,' journeying for purposes of trade between Naples and Palermo. You are Andrea Luziani, and this is the brig 'Laura,'--we are right in this; is it not so?"
"As if you could ever be wrong, caro!" cried the captain with undiminished gayety, clapping him on the shoulder. "Nay, if St. Peter should have the bad taste to shut you out of heaven, you would be cunning enough to find another and better entrance! Ah, Dio! I believe it! Yes, you are right about my name and the name of my brig, but in the other things,"--here he shook his fingers with an expressive sign of denial--"you are wrong--wrong--all wrong!" He broke into a gay laugh. "Yes, wrong--but we will not quarrel about it! Have some more Chianti! Searching for brigands is thirsty work. Fill your glasses, amici--spare not the flask--there are twenty more below stairs!"
The officers smiled in spite of themselves, as they drank the proffered wine, and the youngest-looking of the party, a brisk, handsome fellow, entered into the spirit of the captain with ardor, though he evidently thought he should trap him into a confession unawares, by the apparent carelessness and bonhomie of his manner.
"Bravo, Andrea!" he cried, merrily. "So! let us all be friends together! Besides, what harm is there in taking a brigand for a passenger--no doubt he would pay you better than most cargoes!"